Editor's blog...

28 February, 2008 | 13:02

As you’re probably aware, the guys are all set to fly out to Dubai, so this will be the last blog from me for a while.

Seeing as The Sunday Times has named this one of their five favourite sports blogs, it’s a good job Carlos is taking over duties for a while. At least, I think that’s a good thing…

Despite the relatively early flight, Wednesday was still a big one in terms of training; an hour or so on court in the morning, and a weights session in the afternoon.

The guys turned up at around 10am, and first on the agenda as always was a visit to Andy Ireland. In the real world, a trip to the physio is a luxury, but for these guys it’s a daily check-up from head to toe.

Obviously AI knows Andy’s body pretty well, and he’ll generally work through a series of things each day; Andy tends to switch off from it, catching up on some banter with anyone else in the room…

It’s a pretty thorough process involving legs, neck, back, and the wrists too…

Physio out of the way, there was plenty of time for a few games of tennis/football to get warmed up.

Apparently, a lot of the movements closely mirror those that tennis players make during a game: dynamic, explosive steps, coupled with a need to maintain good balance. Great news for the fitness trainers because they get Andy warmed-up with something fun, but it’s doing him good regardless.

I’m not being funny, but if there’s a better ‘alternative’ sport in the world, I haven’t seen it. Pleased to report my game is now unbelievable…

Plenty of the LTA Top Brass were in today, and a few of them gathered alongside some journalists on the balcony to watch the tennis/football weave its magic.

Judy was taking a class with a load of juniors on the adjacent court, so Andy wandered over to say hello before hitting with Miles. You can always rely on them to ask questions the journalists would probably avoid; like whether he’d ever kissed his girlfriend…

Q&A session with the kids done, Andy and Miles hit for an hour and a half or so; nothing too strenuous seeing as a weights session was in the diary for the afternoon. As usual, plenty of serves in there from Andy…

…and plenty of returns in there from Miles. He doesn’t make all of them, but the intensity is always there…

Everyone broke for lunch at around 2pm, Andy combining lunch with work as he sat down to hammer out some more of his forthcoming book. Once that was done, it was back up to the physio room to learn how to use his new machine.

As you might know, Andy needs to look after his right knee, and this machine will help him do just that by encouraging the bone in the kneecap to calcify. You strap it over the knee, press start and twiddle your thumbs for twenty minutes whilst it does its thing…

…Wayne Rooney had one apparently…

Sadly for Andy, they haven’t invented a machine that builds muscle yet, so there’s no avoiding the weight room, and that was the next stop with Matty Little. As you might expect, everything is clearly mapped out and there’s no such things as slapping on some weights and bashing out ridiculous amounts of repetitions.

They go through a set routine, resting properly between each exercise…

…at times like that the height differential between Andy and Treacle can look a bit obvious…

…still, it’s a good opportunity to relax a bit before hitting the next set hard…

Bit of an emphasis on the legs today, with the sit-down machines getting a go too…

Highlight of the day was Andy moving past another target the guys had set: he was straight on the phone to Jez Green to share the good news…

…no time to rest though because there’s more work to be done on the legs again…

The day finished at around 4pm, and from now until the start of his next tournament the training will be altered accordingly.

It’s not all hard work though - Andy’s old school arcade machine turned up today. Chance for everyone to take a walk down memory lane with everything from Paperboy to 1942.